Blame the Hat Rack
by Once Upon a Whim
Summary: Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda ficathon entry for 'The Third Lorelai'
1. Chapter 1

Blame the Hat Rack (and the Heineken)

**Blame the Hat Rack (and the Heineken)******

_**CWS entry for 'The Third Lorelai'**_

Apologies for the lateness, and for the slight plot-tweaking, minor borrowing from future episodes, and implausibility and/or silliness of the whole thing. You try realistically hooking Lorelai and Luke up in a completely Luke-less episode in which, as far as we know, they're both already either happily phone-dating or shacking-up with their respective teacher- and photographer-types :p

Hopefully you enjoy anyway. Feedback is always appreciated :)

Thanks to **Filo**_** and**_** Sosmitten**_** for the last-minute beta help.**_

Carrying on…__

Emily: If she met your grandmother she'd understand. Now, please, just bring the rack with you when you come tonight, okay?

Lorelai: Okay, sure.

Emily: Thank you.

Lorelai: You're welcome. Bye.

Independence Inn, Friday, 11:42 am

Stabbing at the phone's 'power' button with her thumb, Lorelai sighed. Hat rack. She pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut before zeroing in on the phone once more. Dialing the familiar number, she let out another sigh.

"Luke's," she heard barked in her ear.

"I need the hat rack," she declared, caring less than she should have just how much she sounded like her mother.

Confusion tinged Luke's voice as he asked, "Lorelai?"

Lorelai rolled her eyes as she flipped absently through the inn's mail. "Duh," she replied.

"What the hell are you talking about?" demanded Luke tersely, the din of the diner a dull roar in the background.

"The ginormous, 4 headed, bronze hat rack from my mother that I made you put in our attic two days after she gave it to me," Lorelai explained.

She heard Luke snort. "And you need the hat rack?" he asked wryly.

"My _mother_ needs the hat rack," she corrected, "because of my _grand_mother. Who gave it to my mother, who in turn stuck _me_ with it."

"Of course…"

Lorelai shifted impatiently at Luke's sudden penchant for drawing out conversations. "I need the hat rack," she repeating, trying to keep the whining to a minimum. "Today."

"So get the hat rack," came Luke's response.

"Lu-uke, I can't get the hat rack," Lorelai pointed out, losing her battle with the whining. "It's in the attic," she reminded him. "_You_ put it in the attic, _you_ have to get it from the attic."

"Uhh," Luke stalled, likely distracted by the crash Lorelai heard in the background. "Can't Rory help?" Luke asked. "She's… you know, taller…" he stuttered, "than when I had to put it up there. The two of you can get it."

"Um, A," Lorelai explained, "Rory's in her study group's evil clutches permanently these days, so she won't be home in time. B?" she added with a chuckle, "Even if she _was_, despite her newfound tallness, I'm pretty sure the two of us could drag that beast a grand total of three feet, max. The whole getting it through the hole in the ceiling while on a ladder? Distinct possibility of death, so, depending on who's upstairs and who's on the ladder, when the thing falls and squishes one of us, we either have endangering the welfare of a child and/or murder of said child, or a suicide/child abandonment combo, neither of which were on my list today."

Luke sounded less than impressed with her rambling tale. "Lovely," he stated flatly. "But I can't leave the diner."

"Sure you can," she insisted cheekily.

"Caesar's not in until after lunch, at two."

"So?"

Lorelai was sure she could hear Luke's eyes rolling. "That means I have to be here until two," he reiterated wearily. "Therefore, I can't leave."

Lorelai frowned a moment, then suggested, "Rachel can't cov-"

She found herself immediately cut off by a harsh "No."

Taken aback, Lorelai let out a confused "Ok…" When Luke didn't say anything more, she piped up with a somewhat hesitant, "But you can be at my place at two?"

Lorelai heard a small sigh from the other end of the phone, only to have it quickly followed up with a begrudging, "I'll be there at _four_."

She smiled triumphantly and hung up the phone.

Crap Shack, Friday, 2:07 pm

Some two hours later, Lorelai was lounging on her couch, work clothes still on, heels kicked off, beer in hand, and a half-eaten plate of pizza bites on the coffee table. The computer at the inn had refused to be fixed, and given that she'd be spending the better part of her Saturday working, she'd taken the liberty of giving herself the afternoon off. Lacking anything better to do, she found herself flipping idly through television channels in the hope of finding something mindless to keep her occupied for another two hours while she waited for Luke.

After her third go-round on the channels, there was a knock at the door. She smiled to herself. Just after two, exactly as she'd asked.

"Come in!" she called out over her shoulder.

Behind her, she heard Luke enter the living room and pause.

She glanced over her shoulder in time to catch him, hefting a ladder along with him, sending a look of mild incredulity at her and the scene in front of him. With a smirk, she shrugged and turned back to the TV. "Early much?"

"Hat rack?" Luke asked, a twinge of annoyance sneaking into his tone.

"Right. Up," Lorelai said, gesturing towards the stairs. "You've got the ladder, you know what to do."

Luke gave a soft snort in response. "Swell," he added wryly. "Remind me why a 500 pound hat rack was put all the way up in the attic?"

Lorelai smiled angelically at Luke. "Because we couldn't have its ugliness showing in the house, of course," she said. "And hello, have you seen the garage? The attic was easier."

Luke held up his free hand in mock surrender. "My mistake." Likely realizing questioning Lorelai about her logic wasn't going to get him any farther in getting the actual hat rack, he shook his head slightly and began his ascent up the staircase.

Lorelai watched silently for a moment, trying not to snicker at his attempts to maneuver the ladder awkwardly up the turns in the staircase. "Do you need help?" she finally inquired.

"It'll probably be easier if you keep your distance," Luke muttered as he cleared another corner.

"Fine by me," Lorelai replied. "Yell if you decide you're not so independent after all." She was about to get back to her channel surfing when she recalled what she'd dragged out of the closet and left in the hallway for Luke. "Oh hey, Luke?" she yelled upstairs.

"What?"

"Uh, there's two boxes there in the hallway…" Lorelai informed him casually. "Can you chuck them in the attic while you're up there?"

"Whatever…" Luke grumbled, continuing his efforts to get the ladder up to the second floor.

Turning back to the TV, Lorelai called out after him, "Gracias, merci, danke!"

Crap Shack, Friday, 2:31 pm

Lorelai was staring blankly at the tail end of her second round of "Your Locals on the 8's" when she heard heavy footsteps on the stairs. She shook herself from her Weather Channel daze to see Luke wrestling with the awful hat rack. "God that thing is ugly," she exclaimed, adding an exaggerated shudder for good measure.

Luke rolled his eyes in her direction and hefted the unwieldy contraption down another step. "Am I putting the ugly thing in the car too?" he asked knowingly.

"Yes, please," Lorelai replied, before frowning as Luke nearly missed a step with his foot. "Are you sure you don't need any hel-"

"I'm good," Luke grunted in assurance.

Crap Shack, Friday, 2:46 pm

By the time Luke returned from the Jeep, Lorelai was resigned to the notion that the most watchable thing on TV really was the Weather Channel and had plucked a beer from the refrigerator. Lacking the motivation to do anything else, she figured a movie was her best bet and was perusing her video selection when Luke cleared his throat behind her.

He looked as if he had planned on just heading upstairs to fetch his ladder when Lorelai saw the slight double take. "Isn't it a little early for that?" he asked, gesturing with mild incredulity at the sleek green bottle she held.

Lorelai shrugged unapologetically. "Michel broke my computer, so I wasn't gonna be productive at work. And I've gotta gear up for the four-generation dinner. Want?" she teased, waving the bottle playfully in his direction.

She hadn't exactly expected anything but a flat-out refusal from him, and found herself surprised to see him appear to be toying with the possibility. And, perhaps a little grateful for a drinking buddy to make her feel a little less pathetic at not even 3 in the afternoon, she pointed out in a sing-song voice, "It's five o'clock somewhere…."

Though still obviously not completely comfortable with the notion, Luke managed a "Uh, sure, thanks."

Lorelai raised her eyebrows, impressed, and headed for the kitchen. She grabbed another Heineken and quickly returned to the living room, holding it out in Luke's direction.

He took the proffered beer, took a generous swig, and gestured vaguely towards the stairs. "So, it's done," he informed her, stating the obvious. "Hat rack out of attic, hat rack in car. Max and Dean in attic," he continued, with a wry lift of his eyebrow in Lorelai's direction.

She groaned melodramatically and flopped onto the couch as Luke continued, smirking. "…now bonding with Todd, Steve, a few Christophers, Brian with an 'i', Bryan with a 'y', Greg, and their other friends."

"Did you not hear about the dinner I'm facing?" Lorelai moaned. "Could be amusing, could be hell — either way, you feel the need to mock my sad, sad dating history, which, by the way, I've also apparently now passed on to my daughter?" She pouted animatedly, playing up the 'woe-is-me' act, though she did have to admit, hearing about her less than successful dating exploits, especially from a friend who was happily in a relationship, stung a bit.

Oddly enough, Luke seemed to catch the subtext, and, taking a seat at the opposite end of the couch, offered a stammered apology. "No, sorry, I uh," he started, "I thought things were good with you and the, uh, teacher guy."

"Hardly," Lorelai scoffed as she pulled herself back up to a sitting position. "Months with nothing, see him once, we agree to talk on the phone, crickets ever since," she summarized bluntly. "And that was two weeks ago." What she didn't admit was that, while Max hadn't called her, she hadn't exactly made any attempts to contact him either, or that she was probably more upset about the lack of any someone at all than she was the lack of Max. She downed another swig of beer. "Thus the box in the attic."

Luke offered what was probably intended to be a sincere "Sorry," though Lorelai could have sworn that it seemed, perhaps, a little less heartfelt than one might have expected.

She didn't dwell on that, however. "Eh," Lorelai brushed him off quickly, not having meant to drag down the mood, as it were. "Hey, you've got Rachel," she chirped, forcing a smile, "so at least it's only half a pity-party."

With a vigor Lorelai definitely had not expected from Luke, he brought his beer up to his mouth and downed nearly half the bottle in one fell swoop. "All I've got," he eventually declared, without much emotion, "is a couple Rachel boxes that could hang out with Max up there."

Taken aback, Lorelai felt her jaw drop. "What?" she exclaimed. Hadn't he and Rachel just been the happy couple at the Firelight Festival not a few weeks ago?

Luke cast a sidelong glance in her direction, his cheeks tinged with just the faintest bit of pink. "Yeah, we're not- She-" He stumbled over his words. "She went back to Chicago," he finally spit out.

Shocked more than anything, Lorelai mumbled an automatic, "I'm sorry."

"It's what she does," Luke shrugged, downing more of his beer. "I expected it," he admitted. "And she moved the milk."

Lorelai's brow furrowed. "The milk?" She was confused by both the reference, and by the fact that she wasn't a smidge more empathetic towards Luke — her friend — over the failure of the relationship he'd been holding out for for years.

Luke shook his head, and waved off her question. "There was nothing there anymore," he rephrased.

"Huh," Lorelai replied. "Well," she added brightly after a contemplative pause, "this is a full-fledged pity-party then, isn't it?" Noting, again surprised, that Luke's beer was nearly empty, she clinked her bottle against his knowingly. "'Nother one?" she asked.

"Don't you have to go to your parents?" Luke inquired, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Not for a couple hours," Lorelai replied. "And Rory can drive. It'll be more fun this way anyway."

Casting a glance down at his beer, and then again over at Lorelai, Luke finally agreed. "Yeah, sure, ok."

After she quickly gulped down the rest of her beer in an effort to catch up, Lorelai jumped up from the couch and ran to the kitchen to grab two more bottles from the fridge.

Upon returning to the living room, she handed one over to Luke, and lifted her own in a toast. With a wry grin, she exclaimed, "To being pathetically single!"

Luke chuckled in response, bottles were clinked, and Lorelai sat back down on the couch, her body unwittingly plopping down just a little closer to Luke than she was before.

Crap Shack, Friday, 3:36 pm

Another beer or so later, Luke and Lorelai still sat on the couch, feet up on the coffee table, dumbly watching some sort of cooking show on the Food Network. Lorelai had insisted on such, given that, according to her slightly inebriated logic, Luke was a cook and should therefore like cooking shows. Luke had protested, of course, but to no avail.

For Lorelai's part, while Luke might have absorbed something useful from the show, it was only serving to make her hungry. Practically salivating over what appeared to be some sort of gourmet taco or fajita-like concoction, she giggled. As best she could considering how far she'd slumped down into the couch cushions, she leaned over towards Luke and awkwardly poked him in the ribs. "Hey," she hissed, "You should add tacos to the menu."

Looking bemused, Luke dropped his gaze down to Lorelai and lifted an eyebrow. "Why?" he asked gamely.

"Because tacos are gooood," Lorelai informed him.

Luke smirked. "So?"

Lorelai furrowed her brow for a moment in concentration before stating matter-of-factly, "So, you should offer your customers good food."

"I thought I already did that," Luke replied.

He'd barely gotten the words out when another hunger pang hit Lorelai. "Ooh, what about pizza?" she cried, "You already have _pie_, so you could have _pizza_ pies!"

Luke let out a drunken chortle at her antics and snorted, "Nuh uh."

"Taco pizza!"

"No."

Crap Shack, Friday, 4:27 pm

By the time the contents of the twelve-pack in the fridge had started to dwindle, Lorelai had roped Luke into watching an episode of 'What Not To Wear,' and had also decided that Luke's shoulder made a right comfy pillow.

As it happened, Clinton and Stacy's victim du jour was a photographer by trade, and Lorelai took the opportunity at a commercial to roughly poke Luke in the ribs again. "So you think there's gonna be another chance for you guys?" she wondered aloud, her hand lingering at his side.

"Nah," Luke shrugged, studying the bottle he held. "It wasn't the same. Neither one of us was in it." Turning his head, he eyed Lorelai warily. "You?"

"No sir-ee," Lorelai declared, shaking her head vehemently. "Although… I didn't think there was last time, and then there was two weeks ago," she added leadingly.

Luke nodded in acknowledgement. "Two weeks ago was when you saw him last?" he asked.

Lorelai smirked. "Oh I saw him alright…"

Even four and a half Heinekens in, Luke couldn't have helped but catch the lascivious innuendo. "Jeez," he muttered.

Lorelai laughed, letting only a trace of bitterness leak into her tone. "Yep, you called it Luke," she confirmed, giving him a good solid pat on the chest. "It was a good old fashioned booty-call. Except there was no call, I just — bam — showed up on his doorstep."

She giggled again at Luke's reddening face. "Oh come on," she goaded him, "maybe you and Rachel weren't into the relationshipping thing, but there's no way you spent what — like 2, 3 weeks? — in that teeny tiny apartment without any friends with benefits things going on."

When Luke's color deepened further and he failed say anything or even look her in the eye, Lorelai squealed. "Ha!" she cried, rising to her knees to face Luke, which meant that one of her knees slid between his. "There was totally ex-sex! I knew it!"

"Not really…" Luke finally muttered awkwardly. Just, you know — the festival and the founder's day punch? She had more than her share, and she somehow made me have some, and there you go," he summarized. "I was on the couch the rest of the time," he finished tersely, punctuating his sentence by taking another swig of his beer.

"Huh," Lorelai said pensively. She let herself slide back into the couch cushions, though she rearranged herself such that she was curled up, her feet tucked beneath her and her knees pressed roughly against Luke's thigh.

"What?" Luke inquired, his tone, Lorelai thought, a funny combination of indignant, embarrassed, and teasing.

"Drunk Luke gets frisky," she giggled, "Who knew?"

Luke waved his hand, brushing the comment off with a derisive snort even as he inadvertently proved Lorelai's point by letting that hand fall to her knee, where her skirt had slid up to mid-thigh.

"Come to think of it," Lorelai continued, "you _did_ have a vibe-thing going on last time I saw you imbibing. An imbibing vibe!" she exclaimed, the realization dawning on her suddenly.

"What?" Luke scoffed, his fingers starting to drift over Lorelai's bare knee. "I don't do vibes."

Lorelai corrected him. "Uh huh," she insisted vehemently. "When we were picking paint colors."

"Whatever."

It was only then that the fact that the soft, caressing sensation on her leg was actually Luke's thumb dawned on Lorelai. She glanced down at her knee, and then drew her gaze up slyly to meet Luke's. "Guess I should watch myself here, huh?" she teased. "How many is that, mister?" She was surprised to find that immediately after she mentioned it, she regretted saying anything lest he stop and pull his hand away.

Luke didn't. Nor did he answer the question, replying only with a question of his own. "How many is that?" he asked knowingly.

Shaken by the sensations running through her, brought on, quite literally, by the hand of Luke, it took Lorelai a moment to respond. "Um," she eventually admitted sheepishly, "more than I should have had by 4:…30 on a Friday before I have to go have dinner at my parents with my daughter and my grandmother?"

Luke nodded silently, his fingers still absently tracing chaotic patterns across Lorelai's skin.

Lorelai was confused to all hell not only by the notion of Luke practically pushing her skirt up her leg but even more so by the fact that she was really, really liking it. The last thing she wanted to do was move considering how comfortably numb, and warm, and fuzzy she felt. But she stupidly blurted out, in some sort of drunken attempt to fill the silence that had taken over the room, "So, another one?"

Luke didn't answer that question directly either, instead wondering aloud, "Why do you have so much beer?"

"Tons of leftovers from Rory's party," Lorelai explained as she mentally willed his fingers to keep running over her leg. "Does beer expire?" she chattered nervously, "Is that too long to have beer around?"

"I dunno," Luke replied, finishing off his beer with a timely swig.

"So, another one?" Lorelai asked.

"Eh, why not?" Luke answered.

So, reluctantly, Lorelai slipped away from Luke and headed for the kitchen once more.

Crap Shack, Friday, 4:54 pm

'What Not To Wear' was still on in the background, but Lorelai wasn't paying any attention to it. While she'd taken note earlier of Luke's mention of her beer consumption and the fact that she still had to go to dinner later, and had discreetly refilled her beer bottle with water while getting Luke an unopened one, she was still feeling a pleasant buzz. A buzz that, happily was strong enough for her to have been pleased when, immediately upon returning to the couch earlier, Luke's hand was right back to where it had left off. A buzz strong enough, also, for her not to dwell on why he was doing that, nor on why it was that she was enjoying it quite so much. She'd let herself, instead, drift into a sleepy daze, curled up against him.

Luke finally broke the silence once again with an inquisitive, "Didn't you have to work at all today?"

"Eh," Lorelai said, resituating her head on Luke's shoulder. "Michel broke the computer."

"Right," Luke nodded in acknowledgement, "right."

"Don't you?" Lorelai found herself asking, knowing that he'd only been meant to be getting the stupid coat rack, not lounging on the couch with her for hours.

Luke finally did take his hand from her knee, placing it instead on her arm and giving it a comforting rub. "Caesar's got it."

"Good," Lorelai grinned.

Crap Shack, Friday, 5:43 pm

Nearly an hour later, though she'd had to fetch Luke yet another beer, Lorelai was beginning to sober. And wondering what on earth was transpiring between her and Luke. Not that she was complaining, per se — she was still tipsy enough to be thoroughly enjoying their closeness without completely freaking out — but it certainly seemed as though it had come from nowhere.

"So why'd she leave?" she suddenly piped up over a 'Law and Order' rerun.

"It's what she does," Luke replied, not having needed clarification on the 'she' reference.

Lorelai frowned. "That's not an answer. Why this time?" she pressed. "I can't believe she just stands up and says 'Hey, it's about that time' and just takes off. She's gotta have a reason."

When Lorelai heard his voice catch in his throat, she sat up a little straighter.

"She was developing pictures…" Luke said slowly.

"And?" she coaxed.

Luke turned his head to glance at her through narrowed eyes, silently admonishing her impatience even while drunk. "There was a picture…" he drawled.

"A picture? When she was developing pictures?" Lorelai gasped facetiously. "No! You're kidding!" For some reason, she was getting the sense that what Luke was trying to say had more gravity than she was willing to deal with; forced humor was what she did best in such a situation.

"You know what I mean," Luke said pointedly.

Chastened a bit, Lorelai toned down the teasing and asked curiously, "A picture of what?"

"Us."

"You and Rachel?" Lorelai asked, confused. "Was it dirty?" she joked with a nervous, tinny laugh. That was a question she probably didn't actually want to hear the answer to…

"Us," Luke clarified, clearing his throat. "You and me."

"Well I know that wasn't dirty," she teased, half relieved that it wasn't anything to do with the relationship that had been Luke and Rachel. However, she found herself with her other half even more worried about the weighty implications of what Luke might be getting at. How a picture had anything to do with it was beyond her, and her curiosity got the best of her. "What was it?" she asked. "And how does a picture make her leave?"

With a sigh, Luke explained wearily, "It was us, at that stupid firelight thing. She said we looked too 'cozy.'"

Cozy. Cozy as in, they were pretty cozy at the moment too… "But cozy is good," Lorelai spluttered, the sense of humor defense kicking in yet again. "We're cozy now," she observed aloud, adding a genial pat on Luke's chest for good measure. "And beer is good!" she spat out awkwardly when she knocked Luke's bottle inadvertently with her own.

"Not _good_ cozy," Luke corrected. "She said 'intimate' cozy."

"Luke," Lorelai exclaimed a little too quickly, "I think if I had been intimate with you, I'd remember…" She knew before she even finished the sentence that it had not been the right joke, nor the right time.

Suddenly seeming more sober than he had in a few hours, Luke finally abandoned Lorelai's knee, and brought his hand up to brush away a stray hair from her face. "Yeah?" he whispered.

Her heart suddenly pounding in her chest, Lorelai felt her reply slip from her lips of its own volition. "Wouldn't you?" she asked breathily.

Luke, yet again, didn't say anything in response to her question, but Lorelai knew his answer all the same. How could someone's eyes speak so loudly? Still silent, Luke's hand wandered to skim up and down her arm lazily. His gaze eventually dropped down, and finally he spoke again. "She also left because she said it felt like something — _someone_ — was holding me back. And that's why I wasn't in it."

Frozen still since Luke's hand had left its previous residence on her leg, Lorelai tentatively placed her hand over Luke's where he was tracing patterns in the freckles of her other arm. "Someone she said you were intimate with?" she questioned softly.

Luke's eyes darted back up to meet Lorelai's, his gaze now insistent. "Why didn't you call the teacher when he didn't call you? What held _you_ back?"

It was Lorelai's turn to be at a loss for an answer. It hadn't had anything to do with Luke… Had it? "I…" she trailed off, unable to get anything else out.

"Someone?" Luke coaxed gently as he lifted a hand up to cup her face.

Lorelai sucked in a quick breath at the contact, her eyes fluttering shut briefly. "Maybe…"

The next thing she knew, Luke's lips were pressing softly against hers, warm and insistent and oh so many times better than the leg caressing she'd been satisfied with earlier. And when his tongue began to gently tease her lips, coaxing her mouth open, she really had no choice but to comply. She felt herself leaning back, letting her body melt into the couch as Luke pressed down against her. His hands, just a moment ago teasing the skin of her knee innocently, were dancing up and down her torso, inching up her shirt and leaving her unable to do much more than grasp haphazardly at his own shirt. Her head was spinning and she couldn't catch her breath, though she had no idea if that was simply the heady haze of alcohol or the intensity of Luke's kisses and the overwhelming sensation of his tongue dancing with hers.

What she did know, she realized, letting out a soft moan when Luke's mouth detoured down to her neck, was that having Luke's body weighing down on hers while his hands and lips wandered felt damn near perfect.

Her composure regaining ground as the initial shock of their new circumstances, as it were, faded into a more comfortable, sensual give and take, Lorelai released her grip on fistfuls of plaid. Cradling his face and relishing the slight rasp of his stubble beneath her fingers, she brought his face back to hers and kissed him fiercely. She shifted beneath him, allowing him to settle between her legs. Reaching for his shirt once more, she began slowly unbuttoning the flannel as their tongues still dueled languidly.

Luke seemed to take that as an invitation; a split second later she found herself letting out a breathy gasp at the feel of his hand skimming up her leg, pushing her skirt up further, and teasing the edge of the lacy fabric beneath. She smiled into Luke's kiss and wrapped that leg around his thigh, pressing her hips upwards into his. Luke groaned softly, letting his head fall momentarily to the crook of Lorelai's neck as he ground back down on her.

Lorelai's eyes fell closed and a whimper slipped passed her lips, and she sought Luke's mouth out once more. Slipping her hands beneath his t-shirt, she raked her nails up his back gently, silently urging him to continue.

Not a moment later, practically in their own version of surround sound, Lorelai's cell phone alarm and the chime of the large clock in the living room decided to unceremoniously interrupt.

Jolted out of the fog of sensations, Lorelai yelped, shoving Luke off her roughly. "Oh my God. Is that 6?" she cried. "That's 6. How is that 6?" she wailed, simultaneously trying to smooth her hair and straighten her skirt, while failing at both. "Rory's getting off the bus now, and we have to leave in 15 minutes! Crappity crap crap crap," she muttered, scurrying around the room, trying to collect herself, not to mention the impressive set of Heineken bottles. It had to have been a full ten seconds before she caught herself and spun back around to face Luke. He stood, looking just as shell-shocked as she did, hair mussed, shirt unbuttoned, jeans looking uncomfortably tight in front. "Oh God," Lorelai moaned, flustered and out of sorts, not to mention aroused beyond belief. "I'm sorry," she apologized awkwardly, "I-"

His cheeks red, Luke managed to stammer out a gruff "Right. I'm gonna go…" as he quickly buttoned up his flannel.

"Right. Right…" Lorelai echoed numbly, still somewhat stunned by the whole debacle. She had turned to head to the kitchen, but at the last moment spun around, and chirped an overly courteous, "Um, not driving, right? "

"Walked," Luke informed her flatly.

"Ok. Good. Good," she repeated, still at a loss for how to treat the situation. What had happened? "Um, thanks for the, uh, coat rack thing," she finally managed.

Luke nodded. "No problem. I guess I'll, uh, see ya." And with that, he was out the door.

"Right," Lorelai echoed again to the empty house. "See ya."

**To be continued…**


	2. Chapter 2

**Soooo… Yeah. Um, so it's 8 months later. Oops. Anyway, here we have it, the conclusion of this 'in-between scenes' fic for the CWS ficathon for 'The Third Lorelai.'**

**And just to remind you, this was a Luke-less episode, so there might be minor inconsistencies with the actual episode so I could get him in there. How's about we overlook those, 'kay?**

**Thanks to **_**Filo**_** for the beta.**

Lorelai pulled the blanket carefully up over Rory, smiling softly as she set down the stack of folders and papers she'd plucked from the bed. She knew Rory had needed that study time, but she still wasn't exactly thrilled that she'd been subjected to two straight nights with her parents and Gran while Rory escaped with only one dinner. But since when was Gilmore life fair, she reminded herself with a sigh.

After checking in on Rory, Lorelai wandered the kitchen aimlessly. She wasn't hungry; for all her not wanting to be at dinner, the rabbit had actually been pretty good. She wasn't particularly tired; even if she was, she knew there was no way she'd get to sleep any time soon. Not with over two hundred and fifty grand looming out there with Rory's name on it. And certainly not with Emily's nagging voice looming over the looming money.

She eyed the couch out in the living room and sighed. She might have toyed momentarily with the idea of distracting herself with some mindless TV-watching had it not been for the last time she'd tried that. The TV distraction and the subsequent distraction from the TV – the distraction that involved the gaggle of beer bottles now in the recycling bin, the couch she was currently eyeing, the faint remnants of razor burn still gracing her neck.

And Luke.

It had been over twenty-four hours since the… whatever it was… on the couch with Luke. Fortunately, Lorelai had been lucky enough to be able to distract herself with dinner last night and the prospect of Emily's misery, then with the insanity and Michel's lack of help at work today, and dinner again and Gran's trust fund bomb. But now? Back at the scene of the crime as it were, and nothing else to do?

Lorelai sighed again and sank down onto a chair at the kitchen table.

She didn't know what to think. She certainly couldn't deny enjoying it… And she'd certainly felt the evidence that the enjoyment hadn't been one-sided. But…

"Mmphggh," she moaned to herself, dropping her head onto her arms on the table.

Luke. Yeah, sure, from time to time – recently, even – she might have thought there was something there. Hell, even other people had pointed it out to her, Emily included. But then there had been Max, and Rachel, and Christopher, and Max again…

And they'd never gotten the chance to figure out of there really was something there. _There_ there, or just there, she heard in her mind as she opened one eye and squinted down the hallway to the living room. _There_, or just out there on the couch.

After all, she heard Emily nag, it's terrible not to be needed. Sure, she'd been talking about Rory, but maybe it applied to the Luke thing. Maybe she'd just wanted to be wanted. Needed. The same reason she'd gone to see Max? Maybe Luke had just needed to be needed.

Except that didn't make sense, she groaned to herself, because Rachel had been ready and willing, right?

No. The picture, Lorelai had to remind herself. The details were a little fuzzy, but there had been a picture, and it made Rachel leave, and then there had been kissing. And more kissing. And some touching… And there probably would have been even more had it not been time to go to dinner. Dinner, with the woman who was now throwing a quarter million dollars worth of freedom at Rory.

"Augh," Lorelai exclaimed, yanking her head up off the table and running her hand haphazardly through her hair. Sitting alone in her kitchen was getting her absolutely nowhere. Not with whether to tell Rory about the money, not with whatever the hell that thing with Luke was.

Coffee. Coffee would help.

Except Luke was where the coffee was.

She sighed once more, and glanced again around the kitchen, which was sadly coffee-free.

"Screw it," she finally muttered. She was still unsure how to feel about the trust fund from Gran, and confrontation was normally the absolute last thing she'd be up for, but going to Luke's would get her both coffee and Luke in front of her. Maybe she could at least clear up some of her issues…

A few minutes later, Lorelai was wandering towards the diner, dawdling more and more the closer she got. Turns out she hadn't exactly thought about how she was going to approach Luke about the… incident on the couch.

Unfortunately, her coffee instincts must have been on autopilot, because, before she knew it, she was ignoring the 'Closed' sign and letting herself into the diner. She shuffled in awkwardly, letting out a stilted "Hi" as Luke looked up from where he was sweeping the floor.

"Hi…" Luke replied, appearing slightly shell-shocked, the broom resting limply in his hand. "Uh, coffee?" he finally recovered.

"Sure!" chirped Lorelai, suddenly tense and unsure of what to do with herself.

Luke set the broom leaning in a corner and headed for the coffee pot. Grabbing a mug, he poured the remnants for Lorelai, who followed obediently and took her normal seat at the counter.

She drank in silence, studiously avoiding Luke's curious gaze until he gave up and went back to sweeping.

Curiosity as to her sudden appearance must have gotten the better of Luke, Lorelai surmised, because after a few more moments of silence, she heard from behind her a flat "So…"

Lorelai froze, her cup halfway to her mouth, upon hearing the words. Any and all even pseudo-coherent thoughts that she'd had back in her kitchen immediately fled her mind, reducing her response to an equally dull "So."

Still audibly sweeping up crumbs behind her, Lorelai next heard a gruff "How's your grandmother?" from Luke.

His words caught her off guard, and she startled, letting out a surprised "What?" She recovered quickly, giving a quick half glance over her shoulder as she replied, "Oh, uh, she's good. Good. Makes my mother crazy, so that's always a plus," she added stiltedly.

With a weak chuckle, Luke responded, "Good."

Silence befalling the uncomfortable pair once more, Lorelai found herself admitting to the half of her issues that she hadn't intended to address in the diner. "She wants to give Rory a quarter of a million dollars."

She heard the sweeping stop behind her. "What?" Luke exclaimed.

"Trust fund," Lorelai clarified.

"Oh," Luke replied.

The silence threatening, and Luke's apparent lack of interest in Gran's money doing nothing to ease the turmoil in Lorelai's head, the words came out of their own accord. "We kissed," she blurted out into her coffee. "A lot."

"You and your grandmother?" Luke asked, his tone wry.

Lorelai shuddered animatedly. "Ok, scarred for life," she said, wincing melodramatically as she spun around on her stool. "Officially scarred for life."

Luke shrugged, nonchalant. His eyes met Lorelai's for a split second, before he dropped his gaze quickly back to the floor and resumed sweeping.

While he took to his cleaning up with a renewed fervor, Lorelai studied him intently. The hat she'd knocked off yesterday, the stubble that had scraped her skin, the hands that had been inching up beneath her skirt. The same hands that brought her coffee nearly every day, that fixed her porch and everything else in her house numerous times, that baked her kid birthday coffee cakes…

After a moment, looking down and fiddling with her chipping nail polish, she said quietly, "You know that's not what I meant."

She heard the broom stop. Luke sighed, admitting, "I know."

Looking up, Lorelai found herself lost in Luke's intense stare. "We kissed," she repeated softly.

"I was there," Luke said hesitantly.

Blushing under the scrutiny of his gaze, Lorelai focused on her nails again. "We were drunk," she added, trying to figure out some way to gauge his feelings on the subject. She was starting to get an inkling of what her opinion of the situation was, but Luke wasn't really offering up any clues.

He continued to be equally as unreadable when he uttered a terse "Yes" of agreement to her previous statement.

Growing antsy, but unsure of exactly how she wanted to express herself, especially considering she wasn't exactly sure of what she felt, Lorelai bit her lip. "I-" she started slowly.

"We'll forget it happened," Luke cut her off. He waved his arms, an exasperated tone in his voice as he continued, unprompted, "That's how this goes, right? And," he added with a sneer, "you can go back to your special tutoring sessions with the teach-"

It was Lorelai's turn to cut Luke off. "Hey," she yelped, his insinuation stinging. "One, uh, ow. Two, I didn't say th-"

"You didn't have t-" Luke interjected, reaching for the broom again.

"Luke!" Lorelai jumped in harshly, also quite literally jumping off her stool to grab his arm.

He just regarded her blankly.

Dropping her hand back down to her side, Lorelai backed away bashfully. "I don't want to forget it."

"You don't," Luke repeated, his expression suddenly wary.

"Rachel's not stupid, right?" Lorelai shrugged weakly. And, banking on something she thought she remembered him saying the day before, she added hopefully, "_Was_ there a reason you weren't invested in anything with her this time?"

Luke's expression remained one of confusion even as he answered Lorelai. "No she's not," he agreed slowly. "And yeah, there might have been a reason."

Feeling slightly emboldened by Luke's words, Lorelai took a deep breath. "Was it a similar reason to why I didn't call Max after that one night?" she asked quietly.

Instead of giving her the affirmative answer she had been hoping for, Luke countered with a query of his own. His brow furrowed, he posed the question, "Why did you even go there the first time?"

Taken aback, Lorelai opened her mouth to reply, but found she didn't have the words. A moment later, she let out a soft snort. "Because," she said, rolling her eyes, "my mother is actually right. It _is_ horrible not to be needed. Especially when everyone else around is… being needed." She scrunched up her nose, questioning her own awkward choice of wordage. But shaking that off, she continued honestly. "I wanted to have what you and- what I _thought_ you and Rachel had. Someone who would be there to check up on me when I chug too much of Patty's punch at festivals," she said with a wistful chuckle. "But I realized it wasn't him that I wanted to be that person. He wasn't who I needed. And he wasn't who I needed to be needed by." She shrugged helplessly once more, giving Luke a plaintive smile.

He studied her cautiously before repeating, "So there was someone besides him that you wanted."

Something in Luke's relative non-reaction got to Lorelai. Of it's own volition, her timid approach was out the window, and she suddenly snapped. "Oh my God," she huffed, "I know I'm not the best at making sense, but can we stop rephrasing everything I say? You, Luke, I want you, ok?" she exclaimed. "I was jealous of Rachel, I wanted you two to be us two. I want us. I want us to be an us." She snapped her mouth shut, her hand flying up immediately to cover it as she took in Luke's stunned expression. "And I'm shutting up now," she mumbled from behind her fingers, all the while feeling her cheeks flame red and mentally planning her escape and subsequent exile from the diner.

She wasn't prepared to see a wide smile break out on Luke's face. His voice caught a bit in his throat, but he managed to get out, "I am really relieved to hear you say that."

Lorelai's hand fell back down to her side, though the fierce blush tingeing her cheeks only intensified. Her own smile spreading, she asked tentatively, "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Luke confirmed with a nod. He finally got rid of the broom once and for all, leaning it in against the wall. His hands suddenly free, he wasted no time in crossing the room and placing them, instead, gently on Lorelai's hips.

Her breath catching in her throat, Lorelai shivered at his touch, ever so thankful she was completely sober this time around. Her hands found their way to his chest as she leaned in in anticipation.

Unlike the day before, when Luke's kiss had been a full-on, sudden assault on her inebriated senses, this time he took his time. He leaned in, his warm breath mingling with hers as he hovered oh-so-close. Lorelai's eyes fell closed when his palm made its way up to cup her face, his thumb tenderly stroking her cheek.

And finally, contact. She didn't know if she was the one to finally close the distance between them, or if he'd followed through with the promise in his initial gestures. But Lorelai didn't care. Luke's lips were pressed softly to hers, the kiss growing ever more intense when she opened her mouth to the gentle probing of his tongue. Her arms slid around his neck as she tried to pull him as close as possible. For all she did remember of yesterday's couch escapade, this was that much better.

She let out a breathy sigh when Luke's mouth finally left hers, drifting down her neck and across her collarbone as he slipped her cardigan off her shoulders. Her head lolled back as his lips continued their assault. When Luke's hands moved lower and began skimming her ribs and inching up her silky camisole, her eyes fluttered open in pleasant surprise.

It was only then that she saw, and recalled, their surroundings. "Luke," she murmured, pulling her head back upright. "Luke."

Her words cut off yet again by Luke – this time by his kiss – she smiled against his lips. "Luke," she protested, knowing that he'd only get upset with himself if he let them get too carried away in the middle of the diner.

But, carried away she certainly did want to get, especially after yesterday's preview and with today's knowledge that this – _this_ – was more than drunken fumbling on her couch.

"Luke," she repeated, finally able to pull away breathlessly.

"Yeah," he panted, having been equally swept up in the moment as she.

"Hey," she said shyly, blushing again under his gaze, "do you have the picture?"

"The wh-?" Luke stammered, before realizing what she was getting at. "Oh, yeah," he said. "She left it."

"Can I see it?" she asked, simultaneously pulling him in for another kiss.

Pulling away, Luke cast a somewhat uncomfortable glance towards the curtain behind the counter. "It's upstairs," he answered hesitantly. "I don't know if we shou…"

His words faded as Lorelai grabbed his hand and backed towards the counter. "Okay," she said simply, leading him towards the stairs.

When they reached the top of the stairs, Lorelai found herself pressed up against the door to Luke's apartment, pulled in for yet another heated kiss, his hands roaming beneath her shirt once again. She moaned softly, fumbling behind her for the doorknob.

The door fell open and the pair stumbled slightly, eliciting a giggle from Lorelai. Pulling away from her, Luke guided her inside the apartment and crossed the room to his small work desk. He dug out a manila folder and held it out to Lorelai. He gave her a quick kiss, and still looking a tad uncomfortable with the notion of the two of them being together in his apartment, excused himself. "Lemme, uh, just go lock up down there."

Lorelai nodded, smiling after him as he exited. Her heart was pounding, though whether it was from the anticipation of what was to come or simply from the fact that it felt so right. So right to be there, in Luke's apartment, her lips swollen from his kisses, and waiting for him to return with the promise of even more.

She smiled inwardly, willing herself to quell the giddiness and excitement bubbling inside her. Focusing instead on the envelope Luke had given her, she took to flipping through the stack of photos inside. She snickered at a few featuring Kirk, Bootsy, and more of the town crew. One of the old Dragonfly Inn gave her pause for a second, but then she saw the last one in the pile.

She sucked in a sharp breath. The picture.

Sure, it might have looked innocent enough – just her sitting there with Luke on the bench, probably just having teased each other about who knows what. But… But, she knew – then and now – that it wasn't…

Lorelai jumped slightly when Luke slid an arm around her waist, not having heard him come back in. She leaned back into him and held up the photograph. "How did we ignore this for so long?" she whispered, trying to keep the regret from her voice. "God, why are we so dumb?" She let the let the picture flutter down to the kitchen table as she turned around in Luke arms. "Can we not be dumb anymore?"

"Just call me Einstein," Luke breathed before pressing his lips to hers.

Lorelai would have laughed at the unexpected joke from Luke had he not immediately distracted her by sliding his hands up under her shirt. She gasped ever so slightly, pulling away from him momentarily when she felt the first grazing of his thumbs over the smooth fabric of her bra. She sensed Luke tensing, doing his own pulling away in response to her sudden movement.

Without even giving herself a chance to think about it, she closed the gap between them once again. Her hands drifted to Luke's lower back, subconsciously urging him ever closer.

Luke wasted no time getting back to where he'd been down in the diner; she swayed against him as his lips traced aimless paths over her neck, her jaw, every once in a while revisiting her lips for a searing kiss. All the while his hands set her skin afire beneath her camisole, his short nails scraping sensuously over her back.

A moment later, when she felt his fingertips slip teasingly beneath the cups of her underwire, it was all she could do to not yank her own shirt over her head. "Luke," she murmured, reaching for the buttons on his flannel, "just take it off."

Luke willingly obliged, pulling back just long enough to slide the thin, black camisole up over her head and free of her arms. He moved immediately to pull her back in to pick up where he had left off, but Lorelai grinned impishly and took half a step back from him. Keeping him at arm's length, she made a point of slowly, carefully, one button at a time, removing his flannel shirt. Only in sliding it down his arms did she approach him again, inching closer until they were but a breath away from each other again.

The next thing she knew, her arms were around Luke's neck, and his hands were toying with the clasp on her bra. She barely felt the bra go slack around her torso, the feel of Luke's tongue teasing hers taking precedence. But when his thumbs brushed over her now bare nipples, teasing them, she let out a hiccup of surprise, inadvertently nipping at Luke's lower lip.

Luke hissed in pain as his hand abandoned Lorelai's breast to check his lip for blood.

"Oh God, Luke," Lorelai yelped, mortified. "I'm _so_ sorry, are you oka-"

Luke just silenced her by pressing his lips to hers once more, apparently having escaped the incident unscathed.

Lorelai pulled back, and offered a shy smile. "You're okay?"

"Better than okay," Luke assured her.

Thinking it might be better – and safer – to proceed when she didn't have to worry about remaining upright at any given time, Lorelai reached for Luke's hand, took a deep breath, and led him over to the bed. Even she was a little surprised by how forward she was being, seeing as until yesterday, she hadn't even known how much she'd wanted this, wanted Luke. But now she knew, and was more sure than ever. So she sat down on the edge of the bed, kicked her shoes off, and tugged Luke down on top of her.

From then on, she barely knew what was happening, it was all just a haze of Luke, and hands, and tongues, and teeth, and Luke. He nipped at her breasts while pushing up her skirt. He pressed his hips roughly down into her as her legs fell open, all while running his hands through her hair and plundering her mouth. He was everywhere…

Lorelai gave herself to it, breathy moans and sighs slipping out from time to time, as she otherwise gave into Luke's whims.

At some point she tugged his t-shirt over his head; Luke countered by unzipping and sliding off her skirt, as it had been bunched up uselessly at her waist anyway. Her pantyhose became the next casualty, quickly peeled off by an impatient Luke as Lorelai reached for his belt. Anxious in her own right, Lorelai, finally clad only in her lacy bikinis, pulled herself up to her knees. Luke's belt already undone, she made quick work of his jeans, shoving them down over his hips rather unceremoniously.

When Luke stood up to kick off his boots and free himself completely from his jeans, Lorelai lowered herself down from her knees, creeping back up towards the pillow in anticipation of getting to finish what they'd started yesterday.

She couldn't help but grin as Luke kneeled down on the bed, crawling back up to her. He immediately lowered himself between her legs, and Lorelai's hips thrust up to meet his of their own accord, the heat, even through layers of flannel and lace, nearly unbearable.

Lorelai immediately regretted not pulling off Luke's boxers along with his jeans. She suspected Luke felt the same, for a second later, with his mouth teasing hers, he was helping her shimmy out of her last scrap of clothing.

With a sly smile, she gladly reciprocated.

She wasn't surprised how quiet Luke went about things; she was surprised at how little she had to say. Normally, she'd joke her way through bedroom escapades, maybe when she wasn't quite as comfortable with the guy as she should have been. Or when things got routine and her counterpart a little complacent, maybe she'd offer some subtle instructions.

But not with Luke.

There was nothing she could or would have said, even if she'd been able to form coherent sentences. He just _knew_, and by silent – save for a soft "I'm covered" on her part – agreement, they wasted no time. Positioning himself between her legs, braced on one forearm, he guided himself slowly, tortuously into her.

Lorelai swore she bit her own lip even harder than she had Luke's when she felt the tip of his length slide past her clit before filling her. She gripped the sheets, white knuckled as he sank down into her, willing herself to savor the moment and not just thrust her hips up at him.

She let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding when he was finally buried to the hilt in her.

"Luke," she whispered, releasing her hold on the sheets and pulling him down for a fierce kiss.

He responded in kind, and began to slowly move in her. Lorelai's head fell back to the pillow as she wrapped her legs around him, willing him deeper.

The continued the primal dance of moans, sighs, thrusts, and languorous kisses, though for how long Lorelai had no idea.

Time and space were foreign concepts to her as all she could do was feel Luke, and absently thank the powers that be, once again, for not letting them get this far while drunk and on her couch.

So wrapped up in the sensation was Lorelai, that it essentially took her by surprise when she finally felt herself begin to unravel. She managed to get out a strangled "Luke…" before she tumbled over the edge and was lost. She buried her face in Luke's shoulder, whimpering his name once more, riding the waves as long as she could.

She clung to him, willing him with her. A moment later, he followed, and she felt him pulse deep inside her, a weakly grunted "Lorelai…" in her ear before his entire body went limp above her.

Lorelai let him have a second or two to recover before she placed her hands tenderly on the sides of his face. "Hey," she whispered, placing a soft kiss on his lips.

"Hey," Luke echoed, easing himself off her as he brushed a matted tendril of hair from her damp forehead.

With a sated grin, Lorelai traced a lazy pattern across Luke's bare chest. "So…" she said jokingly.

Luke smirked. "So…" he mimicked again. "I guess I should be pretty glad you had all that beer around yesterday?"

Lorelai rolled her eyes, feigning having taken offense at Luke's apparent reduction of their burgeoning relationship to the mere aftereffects of alcohol. She just pulled him to her for another kiss, intent on reminding him that there was so much more to what had happened than a few Heinekens.

When she pulled away, however, she did offer a sly smile, adding, "Nah, I blame the hat rack."

~*~

Making her way back into Stars Hollow following the ridiculous tea with her mother and Gran, Lorelai smiled in spite of herself. Yeah, she'd screwed up and cost Rory a big chunk of money, but… she eyed the diner across the square, and, her smile widening, quickly guided the Jeep into a parking spot.

She hurried into the diner, thoughts of trusts fleeing her mind as soon as she caught sight of Luke. "Hey," she said when he looked up at her.

Luke's gaze darted about before he finally responded with a guarded smile and a muted "Hey."

Lorelai followed his line of sight, her face falling slightly as she noted Kirk at the end of the counter, not to mention Patty and Mrs. Cassini in the corner. Clearing her throat, she put up her best casual front. "So," she said, louder than necessary, "did you have that thing you wanted to show me?"

Luke frowned, looking rather confused. "Wha-"

Lorelai winked animatedly, and followed it up with an insistent stare when Luke didn't appear to catch on.

Finally the light bulb went off, and Luke went along with her scheme. "Oh," he said awkwardly. "Yeah, the thing. It's upstairs."

Without even waiting for more of an invitation, Lorelai skirted the counter and ducked behind the curtain to the stairs. Not a split second later, Luke appeared.

"Hi," she said coyly, reaching for him.

Luke's gaze skimmed over her appreciatively as he responded with a husky "Hello."

But as Lorelai leaned in for a kiss, Luke backed away, nodding out towards where the diner crowd sat.

"Got it," Lorelai nodded, catching on. Not wasting any time, she turned and scampered up the stairs, away from prying ears, as it were.

"How was your thing?" she heard Luke ask from behind her as she approached the top the stairs.

"Oh swell," she sighed. "Trust fund's not gonna happen. Not now, anyway."

"What?" Luke asked, sounding concerned, "Why?"

Lorelai shrugged as Luke reached the landing and opened the door to his apartment. "Just family fun. No big deal," she assured him, following him inside, "just means I have to suffer on Friday nights from now until eternity."

Now safely within the confines of the apartment and the door closed behind them, Luke pulled Lorelai towards him. "Well," he said, his eyes mischievous, "if you come here after, at least now we can make up for it."

Lorelai smirked, leaning into him as she nodded in agreement. "True, true my friend."

By day three of being involved with Luke, or at least the second sober day, Lorelai would have thought she'd have been getting used to the shiver that ran up her spine at the first touch of her lips to Luke's. But she wasn't.

She clung to Luke, still not trusting her balance, especially when his tongue coaxed its way into her mouth.

She moaned weakly, not sure she'd ever get used to the sensation of him.

When Luke's hands began wandering, Lorelai pulled away reluctantly. "As much as I'd love an encore from last night," she apologized, "I've gotta track Rory down. She should be getting off the bus soon, and I'm sure she wants to know how dinner and tea were, and I still have to tell her about the non-money and…" She shrugged, pointedly looking down to where their now-joined hands hung at their sides.

"This," Luke finished for her.

Lorelai nodded. "Yep."

His thumbs gently stroking Lorelai's knuckles, Luke asked hesitantly, "How do you think she'll take it?"

"I'm sure she'll be okay," Lorelai replied, giving his hands a reassuring squeeze. "If anything, it'll just be the timing. Dean, you know?" she added. "Naveena Cutler."

Luke, nodding upon hearing Dean's name, looked a tad confused at the next name thrown out there.

Lorelai paid his expression no mind, instead reaffirming, "But she'll be happy. I'll just tell her it means free coffee," she added with a grin.

"Like you ever paid anyway," Luke scoffed.

Lorelai smirked and dropped Luke's hands. "Well I can't exactly share the real benefits with her, now can I?" she said innocently as she reached up and pulled him down for another kiss.

And once again, Lorelai felt herself practically melting into Luke, getting completely lost in him as his tongue gently sought out hers, his hands softly kneading the skin of her hips, her lower back…

As tempting as the thought of letting her hands stray higher, knocking off his hat, and dragging him over to the bed was, Lorelai knew she owed Rory a talk. "Okay," she mumbled against his lips before placing her hands on his chest and forcibly pushing him away, "really have to go."

Still reluctant to completely let her go, Luke latched on to one of her hands again. "Come in for dinner?" he asked, his voice hopeful.

"Definitely," Lorelai promised, smiling up at him yet again before she pulled him in for a quick peck. "This?" she said knowingly. "It's good."

Luke nodded in definitive agreement as he finally released his grip on Lorelai's hand.

As she headed for the door, she glanced back over her shoulder and added, "Oh, and you don't have to deal with the hat rack anymore. I made my mother keep it."

Luke chuckled. "Also good."

Lorelai grinned in return. And, pausing thoughtfully for a moment, she gestured down the stairs with a tilt of her head. "I'm going to see Rory," she said playfully. "Some of those free coffees for the road?"

Though he rolled his eyes and let out a soft snort, Luke moved to follow Lorelai down the stairs. "You got it," he said, sounding more than happy to oblige.

~*~

"Ohhh. Well, there's something I have to tell you," Lorelai replied, figuring her black mini paled in comparison to Gran's trust.

Rory's brow furrowed. "What?" she asked, sounding concerned.

Lorelai grinned. "You lost out on a quarter of a million dollars today," she informed Rory nonchalantly.

"What?" Rory gasped, shocked.

"Yeah," Lorelai nodded. She paused a second, then amended with a giddy smile. "And actually, there's two somethings I have to tell you."

Rory eyed Lorelai with amusement. "Besides losing out on a fortune?" she wondered aloud.

"I'm dating Luke," she blurted out.

"What?" Rory asked, incredulous.

With a nod, Lorelai confirmed happily, "Yeah."

"Ok, Missy," Rory giggled, "start at the beginning."

Lorelai pursed her lips, trying to think of where to begin. "Well," she finally said, "you know that hat rack?"

_**~Fin~**_


End file.
